Coatesville RDA member to serve as interim executive

COATESVILLE — The Redevelopment Authority has named one of its members as the interim executive director as the city struggles with its budget.

Jack Burkholder will serve as director, because the city will likely refrain from hiring a new redevelopment director in 2013 for budgetary reasons. Burkholder, who serves as vice chairman of the board, has volunteered to serve in the position and the authority is still awaiting clearance from the state ethics commission to confirm if he can be director and a board member simultaneously, according to Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Disciullo. Burkholder is not being paid until he has ethics commission approval. If approval is granted, he will be paid $1,200 per month, which is what former director Rob Barry was paid.

“We need Jack in place, because we are trying to keep the ball rolling,” Disciullo said.

Barry left the city in October to take another job. While working for the city, he served as the redevelopment director and the executive director of the authority. The city has eliminated the redevelopment position from its 2013 budget as a cost savings measure.

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Disciullo said Burkholder is retired and has a background in business, so he should be able to handle every aspect of the position except for grant writing. Disciullo said the authority and the city are working on a joint position of a contracted grant writer.

The city has placed the new grant writing position into its 2013 budget. City Council is expected to earmark a payment from the city’s train station project of $52,00 on Monday to be used for the grant-writing position.

Beyond filling its director position, the authority has also approved five offers for houses on the 300 block of Fleetwood Street. The residents in that block are being relocated and their properties are being purchased by the authority for future development near the newly proposed train station. The exact nature of the development in that area is unknown.

Disciullo said he has signed four of the five agreements. He added that the authority held a special meeting to expedite the real-estate purchases and the authority is willing to do so in the future to accommodate residents who have a relocation property they are ready to obtain.

“We’ve got to try to do all we can to make this right,” Disciullo said.